When studying the cultural evolution of societies, there is an interesting pattern that arises — that doesn’t get nearly the attention that it deserves. Notice how all historical civilizations have collapsed. There is no evidence that any have proven to be sustainable.
What does this tell us about our planetary predicament? For starters we might ask if this is an exhaustive list of human cultures. We will soon come to learn that there are many ways of organizing human societies that are (a) not empires or civilizations; and (b) some of them have proven to be resilient enough to last for very long periods of time.
This doesn’t mean these human populations had static cultures. Every one of them continually evolved through the complex interplay of social learning processes within their cultures and changes in their environments as they went about their lives from one generation to the next. Those that still exist are continuing to evolve right now.
Yet it is intriguing to note how much effort goes into trying to make the current planetary-scale civilization into something that is “sustainable” when there is no historical track record to build upon.
One thing we can learn from this disturbing fact is that it may be necessary to practice a deeper kind of discernment. If we are indeed to create sustainable human communities, it might behoove us to separate those models of social organization that always collapse (e.g. empires and civilizations) from those that have a better track record of success (e.g. various hunter-gatherer and horticultural societies that are interwoven with the ecosystems on which they depend).
Take for example the best-selling book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. It presents a broad body of archeological evidence that North, Central, and South America had plenty of civilizations. Yet the astute reader will observe that none of them avoided collapse and disintegration.
Sadly missing is the story of indigenous cultures that continued to evolve through the disruptions of colonialism, the rise and fall of empires, and other environmental changes brought on by globalization in the last few centuries.
I have been studying these cultures in an embodied way by traveling with my wife and daughter to permaculture farms, landscape restoration projects, and most recently to a mountain town in the northern Andes where indigenous practices have been regenerating ecological corridors nearby.
What I am learning is that we should practice deeper discernment about the unquestioned assumptions and beliefs that arise within civilization worldviews — if we truly seek to restore health and vitality to the entire planet for future generations.
This is part of a deeper inquiry that has been unfolding within our workshops on planetary collapse and the emerging possibilities for a Design Institute for Regenerating Earth.
